Blackhawks fire Tallon

July 14, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

The Chicago Blackhawks have fired GM Dale Tallon. The news was broken by The Fourth Period less than an hour ago.

Tallon served as the club’s eighth GM in franchise history taking over on June 21, 2005. Under him, the Original Six franchise rebuilt through the draft landing dynamic duo Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

He also was responsible for several big moves including a three-team deal involving Ottawa and San Jose for Martin Havlat and hoisting the Flyers for Patrick Sharp. Along with the development of blueliners Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, he acquired Kris Versteeg from Boston in another slick deal that helped the club reach its first postseason since 2001-02. There were also signings such as Nikolai Khabibulin and Brian Campbell that helped provide leadership, getting the club to the Western Conference Final before they lost to bitter rival Detroit.

Apparently, none of this was enough to save him. Instead, the botched qualifiers with Versteeg, Cam Barker and five other players- all of who he still retained but was forced to commit more cap space towards- wound up costing his job. It couldn’t have helped either that he signed Marian Hossa for a ridiculous length at a cool baker’s dozen for $62.8 million. Due to the NHL’s investigation that deemed the qualifiers illegal, it put Tallon in a precarious situation having to lock up those players including significant raises to Barker and Versteeg, who were each bumped up to at least three million per. With Kane, Toews and Keith all restricteds following next season along with Dustin Byfuglien up in 2011, the term cap hell certainly applies.

So, instead of keeping Tallon who is largely responsible for turning their roster into a serious contender, he’s been replaced by assistant GM Stan Bowman. An official announcement will be made later today.

That’s too bad for Tallon. While it seems like classic overreaction due to the recent negative PR with plenty of speculation that someone might have to be moved to clear room so that nobody tenders an offersheet to either Kane or Toews.

Well, at least the Blackhawks displayed that they care about incompetence even if it was a bit strange. And in one Spring, they won as many rounds as the Blueshirts have since the lockout.

Anyone home at 2 Penn Plaza? Will somebody please stand up? Nothing like a little classic Eminem to finish this entry!